Back in the days of the N64, UK-developer Rare announced a game
called Dinosaur Planet for that same system. It was anticipated by many
gamers, especially those who were fans of Rare's other action/adventure
type games such as Banjo Kazooie, Jet Force Jemini, Donkey Kong 64 and
others in it's long history of making games for Nintendo. It supposedly
starred two warriors, Sabre and Krystal, both of whom looked similar to
cats. But alas, Dinosaur Planet was never to be released. It's release
kept getting delayed until finally it dropped off of release lists
altogether. Nothing more was really thought of it until around the time of
the Gamecube's launch. Evidently, Shigeru Miyamoto and other top Nintendo
figures had taken a look at the buggy, unfinished game and noticed how
close the main character Sabre resembled Fox Mccloud. It was pretty
intriguing when Nintendo announced that the game was going to be put in
the Star Fox universe and released for the next-gen system Ga
mecube. However, when Microsoft bought out Rare, Star Fox Adventures
became both the first and last (at least for now) Rare game released on
the Gamecube. Well finally after another series of annoying delays it did
finally get released. So how's it add up? Well I will cover each of the
five main points of interest: Story, Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, and
Christian Rating.

Story

The game's story is decent enough for this kind of game. These type of
games aren't exactly known for their story anyway.

Star Fox Adventures takes place eight years after the Star Fox team, led
by Fox Mccloud and containing members Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, and
Peppy Hare, defeated the evil scientist Andross. However, times have since
drastically changed and as of late Falco has gone off on a solo career,
Slippy traded his pilot wings for a place in Weapons R & D, and Peppy
retired to become navigator and general advisor. Fox and co. were just
drifting through space waiting for their next big mission when General
Pepper's hologram popped up and sent Fox on a mission to a place called
Dinosaur Planet…

As it turns out, an evil tyrant General Scales was terrorizing the
planet's population and had stolen the four Spellstones that kept the
world in balance. When a female fox named Krystal went to investigate she
ends up in trouble herself. Can Fox stop Scales and rescue Krystal in
time?

Gameplay
You have two basic goals over the course of the game. Retrieve the four
Spellstones General Scales stole so the planet doesn't blow up and collect
the six Krazoa Spirits to free Krystal from her prison. To get each Spirit
you will have to find the spirit's shrine and undergo its test.
To accomplish your two goals, you have two tools to aid you. The first is
the magical staff Krystal accidentally dropped onto Dinosaur Planet. Once
Fox finds the staff he can not only wield it like a martial-arts master
but also accomplish various tasks with it and cast spells as well.
Apparently, General Pepper made him leave behind his standard blaster
weapon, which is rather unfortunate for die-hard Star Fox fans. But then,
this game wasn't supposed to be a Star Fox game originally anyway. The
game uses an Auto-Lock On system, which is basically copied from the one
in The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This isn't really a bad thing
though as combat is fairly efficient. By pressing A and using the Control
Stick at the same time you can execute combos that can defeat the enemy
faster. However, because there are only a couple different combos, combat
will get a little repetitive after a while. Well, actually it can get very
repetitive.

You can also press X to dodge and R to defend using your staff, the latter which will make you basically
invulnerable to attacks as long as you hold the button down. So as you can
see, combat is really simplistic and easy to do.
The second “tool”, if that's the right word to use, is your trusty
sidekick Prince Tricky. Prince Tricky is a young Earthwalker (read:
Triceritops) who you end up rescuing from General Scales' goons. He has
various “commands” you can have him do, like digging up items in the
ground or breathing fire to melt ice. One of his commands “Play” doesn't
have a practical use in the game but is something cute you can do. He will
throw a ball your direction. You can then pick the ball back up and throw
it back at him. He will run to go fetch it and then the process repeats.
The last thing to mention about the prince is that for whatever reason
Rare decided to give him a very smart-alecky voice and personality. While
this didn't really bother me it will annoy some people. There is fairly
brief Star Fox shooting sequences when you have to travel to places that
broke off from the main planet but it's meant more as a teaser for old
Star Fox fans than anything else.
And finally, the game is rather short. While modern action/adventure games
like this (the main quest of them at least) aren't usually very long, this
game is one of those 'beat it and leave it' games. There's only one thing
that could even be considered a side-quest and that's so small and easy
it's hardly even worth mentioning.

Graphics and Sound
The graphics are good, no doubt about that. Not as impressive as Metroid
Prime perhaps, but still good. Fox's and Krystal's fur looks realistic and
the level design is very well done. There weren't any real noticeable
glitches or bugs either, which is rather fortunate considering the game
got delayed from release for quite a while. It's easy to just stand and
watch a thunderstorm and other weather effects for several minutes. It
looks that real. I am continually amazed at how fast graphics technology
is improving.
There isn't really a lot to say about the sound. The music is good
although not anything really memorable. The voice acting is good enough
although as I mentioned earlier some people will get annoyed at Prince
Tricky's smart aleck voice.

Christian Rating

There are two things that Christians need to be aware of concerning
potentially offensive content:

1. The game has a very mystical feel to it. The Krazoa Spirits are very
ghost-like in appearance. When Fox collects one, it gets absorbed into his
body, he floats into the air for a moment and his eyes glow slightly blue.
That can definitely make Christians uncomfortable. The magic staff also
can accomplish magical effects like shooting fire and ice.

2. The female fox Krystal wears nothing more than a bikini top and a
loincloth.
Fox is obviously attracted to her. In the scene where he first sees
Krystal in her prison, he stands staring for several minutes.

There is one more thing I need to mention. If you look on the back of the
box you'll notice the ESRB rated it Teen for 'Animated Blood' and 'Mild
Violence.' The Mild Violence I can understand. The Animated Blood however
is quite another story. It unfortunately seems to be one of those cases
where the ESRB goofed up. I am pretty clueless about that rating. Enemies
flash red when you hit them and there's a brief appearance of what I will
call "red gas"(for lack of a better phrase) when you hit them but none of
that would be seriously taken for blood by any gamer or non-gamer. There
is a brief scene at the beginning where General Scales grabs Krystal,
drags her across the deck of his airship, and throws her overboard(she's
rescued by a dinosaur, fortunately) but that's about as intense as it ever
gets.

Conclusion
Other Gamecube games such as Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime are
better games. However, if you are looking for a good action/adventure game
for the Gamecube(and especially if you like dinosaurs) you should check
this game out. The game is a pretty fun effort on the part of Rare
although somewhat on the short side. The heavy mystical themes will make
some Christians uneasy however. To be on the safe side, Christians might
want to give this game a rent first.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this Christian Spotlight review are those of the reviewer (both ratings and recommendations), and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Films for Christ or the Christian Answers Network.